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Regardless of his greatest efforts, Aaron Rodgers won’t face his former rival on Sunday when the Steelers face the Bears in Chicago.
As Steelers coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged, Rodgers did all the pieces inside his energy to place himself in place to play per week after struggling a fracture to his left wrist. However in the end, Tomlin felt that the perfect plan of action was to relaxation Rodgers whereas giving the keys of the offense to veteran quarterback Mason Rudolph, who has an 8-4-1 document as Pittsburgh’s QB1.
“He fought his tail off all week, however that is the prudent play for us to make as a collective,” Tomlin informed Evan Washburn on NFL In the present day+. “He will not be enjoying this week. We’ll let Mason begin, and clearly, he is absorbed a lot of the reps this week.”
Whereas probably not a straightforward one to make, Tomlin’s determination was undoubtedly based mostly on two figuring out elements.
Each Tomlin and Rodgers had stated all week that the later wanted to indicate that he might show regular features of enjoying the place whereas additionally displaying the power to guard himself. Clearly, Rodgers did not present at the least a kind of features, at the least lower than Tomlin’s liking.
Steelers vs. Bears: Aaron Rodgers dominated inactive, Mason Rudolph to start out at QB, decide, odds, kickoff time
Bryan DeArdo
Secondly, Tomlin has a greater than succesful backup who — as Tomlin himself famous — acquired the vast majority of the first-team reps throughout this week’s practices. Rudolph, 30, went 12 of 16 for 127 yards and a landing throughout final week’s win over the Bengals. He led Pittsburgh on scoring drives on every of its two second half possessions.
“He has an unwavering perception in self,” Tomlin lately stated of Rudolph. “I have been round him numerous years. Very not often can we see him shaken or missing in confidence, and that is actually a superb skill-set to have beneath these circumstances.”
At this level, we do not know if Rodgers had been medically cleared to play by Pittsburgh’s medical employees. If he wasn’t, then Tomlin’s determination was mainly made for him. But when Rodgers was certainly cleared for motion, it makes Tomlin’s determination to go along with Rudolph slightly notable.
As a substitute of selecting to go along with a future Corridor of Fame quarterback who eagerly needed to face a longtime rival, Tomlin as a substitute determined to go along with the more healthy, albeit much less completed participant whom Tomlin clearly feels offers his group the perfect probability to win.
No matter what occurs on Sunday, Tomlin’s determination was in the end the precise one. Rodgers is coping with a slightly important harm. As a substitute of additional placing him in harms method, Tomlin is giving Rudolph one other probability to guide the Steelers’ offense after doing so with appreciable success final week.
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